


A Progression of the Senses

by HatterLifeStyle



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-26 00:45:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10775946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HatterLifeStyle/pseuds/HatterLifeStyle
Summary: On a lazy Saturday morning Kara reflects on the progression of her relationship with Lena while recalling an old conversation from her college days.





	1. Introduction I: The Lovers

**Author's Note:**

> The premise for this entire fic is based on an actual class we had on acting and performance in animation and when we were covering the topic it just struck me as so fitting for these two.

It's late when Kara steals one last hug from Alex before ushering her out of the door and assuring her that she could handle cleaning up after their latest successful game night by herself. Alex lingers for a moment at the door but relents and gives a short wave before hurrying down the hall to catch up with Maggie and Winn. Kara closes the door and relaxes into the newfound calm in her apartment, then begins going around, picking up a few stray bottles and adjusting any loose ends in her living room. Admittedly, there wasn't much to clean up this time. When Lena had arrived nearly an hour late for game night looking haggard and worn only to confess that she was too exhausted to participate everyone had nodded in sympathy and urged her to go get some sleep and then proceeded to do their very best to keep their usual chaos to a minimum. 

Kara hurries around the apartment trying to finish up with her cleaning before her absence becomes too conspicuous. Even when bone tired Lena was a light sleeper and any abnormality registered in her sleeping state, such as the absence of her bed-mate, was usually enough of a reason for her to rouse herself from her slumber. Kara sees Lena's handbag leaning haphazardly against the kitchen island -something Lena only ever does when she's just too tired to be bothered with hanging it up- and she takes care of putting it in it's proper place. Her super-hearing picks up the sound of Lena's body shuffling against the sheets, and Kara can almost picture the way she's just thrown her arm across the bed and the slight frown tugging at the corner of her lips at Kara's absence. With a few final adjustments their living room is as flawless as it was before their friends had arrived and Kara is satisfied by the results. She takes a deep breath, smells the comforting scent of jasmine wafting from the small bouquet Lena had brought the day before -a small purchase made on a whim as she'd put it- and then pads gently into their room. Once again she finds evidence of Lena's exhaustion as she picks up the discarded blouse Lena had draped across the back of one of the chairs they kept in the bedroom. She runs a hand gently against the soft silk of the blouse, doing her best to get most of the major wrinkles out of the material, and then hangs it back up in the closet before making her way to the bathroom. It's as she's brushing her teeth with the strange-tasting toothpaste that Lena insists on buying that she hears Lena stirring once again before the movement stops and a quiet "Kara?" reaches her ears. She spits out the toothpaste and rinses her mouth and is quick to reach their bed, climbing into the space Lena had no doubt been expecting her to be.

"I'm here," She assures, brushing soft strands of silky hair out of sleepy eyes.

"Hmm... I thought maybe you'd been called away," Lena explains, fingers clasping loosely around Kara's wrist.

"Game night just ran a little later than usual." She explains, resting her hand on the curve of her waist and rubbing her thumb soothingly over the warm cotton of Lena's shirt in an attempt to soothe her back into sleep. It seems to do the trick because Lena doesn't seem inclined to respond and Kara settles into the closeness of the moment, slowly succumbing to sleep herself.

She wakes again before it's light out and the absolute quiet of the city leads her to believe that it hasn't actually been that long since she fell asleep. At first she wonders whether she woke because of a siren off in the distance but it isn't long before she realizes that it's Lena getting back into their bed that has roused her from her sleep.

"I didn't mean to wake you." Kara hears the apology in Lena's voice, tastes it on her lips in the quick peck she's given as Lena settles back into bed.

"S'okay." She mumbles, pulling Lena into a warm embrace as she snuggles into her.

She wakes early the next morning. It's Saturday and both she and Lena are thankfully free of any work-related obligations so she allows herself the luxury of lounging in her warm bed while watching the sunlight slowly wash over both her and Lena's belongings. Her senses are filled with Lena's presence, warm and so familiar by now, yet no less thrilling after the year and a half that they'd been dating. She's suddenly reminded of a conversation she'd had what feels like a lifetime ago, back when Supergirl was little more than the occasional daydream she'd indulge in to ease the weight of her hidden powers, and she can't help but let out a quiet huff of laughter which seems to be enough to rouse Lena from her sleep.

"What are you laughing about so early in the morning?" She asks, her voice a low, raspy drawl as she moves to hide her face against Kara's neck.

"I was just thinking about a conversation I had with someone a long time ago." She murmurs, smiling against the locks of dark hair that spill onto her face at Lena's new position.

"Oh?" Lena perks up at that, the curious tilt of her head almost cat-like in its elegance. "Do tell." She purrs, placing an encouraging hand on Kara's chest and stroking at her collarbone with just the tip of her fingers. Kara smiles, catches Lena's hand in her own and presses it to her cheek.

"It's just something a friend said to me back in College." She shrugs. "Just relationship stuff. How they start, how they progress, how that all relates to the senses, you know?"

Lena's eyebrow arches at that, intrigued but also slightly skeptical. 

"Sounds like a philosophy student to me." And bless her, she tries her best to hide her slight disdain for the field of study, but Kara knows where she stands in regard to those studies and it's too early for Lena to manage to properly school her features. Kara laughs, breathy and low as she shakes her head.

"Animation, actually." Lena's face scrunches up at that, the skeptic raise of her eyebrow replaced by the bemused furrowing of her brow. Kara shifts so that she's laying on her side, facing Lena more fully. "You know how I took a few art classes in college?" Lena nods slowly. "I shared some of them with her, life drawing and color theory. Maybe some other class I can't remember now. We'd run into each other at the coffee shop near campus and sometimes we'd talk for a while."

"About relationships?" Lena is smiling, playful yet curious about this small snippet of Kara's life.

"Not really," Kara laughs. "Mostly about our classes or what we'd been up to since the last time we managed to chat. The relationship thing just came up when she was telling me about something they'd been talking about in her animation class."

"I see." Lena says nothing for a moment, letting the information sink in before she speaks up again. "And what exactly did this animator friend of yours have to say about relationships and the senses?" Lena asks, getting comfortable in that way she always did when she was preparing to give Kara her full and undivided attention.

"Well..."


	2. Introduction II: The Animator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I was planning on diving right into the Supercorp we all crave but the introduction of the character went on for longer than expected and made for a monster of a chapter so instead you guys get this second introduction and from here on it's pure Supercorp with a few paragraphs in the coffee shop in each chapter. I'm going to try to update every Monday so fingers crossed.

"Relationships progress through the senses," Claire said, stirring what some would consider an obscene amount of sugar into her cappuccino.

"What?" Kara laughed around her mouthful of donuts, swallowed, then reached for her own drink. "Where did you hear that?"

It was mid-afternoon in the little coffee shop near National City University and Kara and Claire were seated facing the large window that gave them a pleasant view of all the pedestrians walking by the storefront. When no answer was immediately forthcoming Kara turned away from the window to look at her friend who seemed to be particularly fascinated by some of the characters strolling by in front of them. It took a while for Claire to snap out of it.

"Hmm?" She hummed, before finally tearing her gaze from the window. "Oh, in class," She shrugged, stirring her coffee a little more for good measure before taking a tentative sip. "Today was all about portraying emotion and performance in your characters." She grinned in that way someone did when thinking about a subject they found truly interesting. Kara couldn't help but smile at the carefully reigned in enthusiasm.

"And how exactly do the senses come into play?" She asked, guessing that Claire would jump at the chance to discuss the topic.

"Well, it's a matter of how a character interacts with the world, you know?" She said, turning her body from the window to better face Kara. "I mean, that's what our senses are, right? The way in which we analyse, interact with and interpret the world."

Kara nodded slowly, sipping from her Latte once more. A part of her, the one she assumed corresponded to the Kara Zor-El who would have been the youngest member ever to join the science guild of Krypton, couldn't help but feel that the definition was painfully diluted. Deliberately vague. She didn't comment on it though. After all, it was technically correct.

"Okay then," She said, shaking the feeling away even though something in the way Claire looked at her made her wonder whether she was somehow aware of what she'd been thinking. She hastily spoke up again in an attempt to draw attention away from the slight skepticism she was apparently incapable of hiding completely. "But what do relationships have to do with all that?" She asked. Claire laughed, obviously not expecting the question but not surprised by it either.

"What's a relationship if not a series of interactions between characters? Between people?" She answered matter-of-factly.

"Fair enough." Kara conceded. Claire smiled, evidently pleased with herself and then took a long drink from her coffee before taking another forkful of the cinnamon roll she'd gotten. The first forkful was followed by a second and then a third and Kara waited patiently for her to speak up again. When it became evident that Claire had lost track of the topic of their conversation (she was once again watching the passerbys with keen interest) Kara cleared her throat just loud enough to catch Claire's attention again.

"Were you... planning on elaborating a bit on that?" She asked. Claire blinked once but then seemed to come back to the topic at hand. 

"Do you want me to?" She shot back, smiling in that way she did when trying to give Kara an escape from a topic she might not find interesting.

"Well... yeah? I'm curious about this progression you mentioned." Claire's smile widened, going back to that passionate grin she'd been sporting before.

"Well, basically a character processes the world- processes relationships, by- by running it through the senses you know?" And already Kara could see the way she sat up straighter, the way her hands gesticulated a little more animatedly than before. She took her Latte in hand and nodded in understanding.

"Sure..." She said, gesturing for Claire to continue.

"Yeah, I mean. The teacher put it like- granted he applied it to romantic relationships but it works with all of them really, give or take." And by then Kara couldn't help but grin herself because the way Claire kept cutting herself off after every few words as if she simply could not get them out fast enough for them to follow the speed of her thoughts reminded her of the passionate way Alex spoke whenever she found the time to call and tell her about her own courses and what she'd learned in them. It was nice. A familiar franticness driven by the desire to share something with someone else that made Kara feel appreciated whenever it was directed at her.

"See, first you see someone, you know? Like, maybe from the other side of the room or something, who knows?" Claire waved her hand dismissively, as if shooing off a hoarde of thoughts that were branching out but were not needed at that particular moment. "Anyway, first you see the person and they interest you. Maybe you'll start talking, and of course you're not going to be shouting from the other side of the room, right?" And at that she paused just long enough for Kara to think that maybe she had actually been expecting an answer, but just as she opened her mouth to voice some sort of confirmation Claire started speaking again. "You move closer. Over time you grow comfortable with each other and suddenly your personal bubble starts shrinking down, your sense of smell starts playing a part in it all. You smell their cologne, or their perfume or..." She trailed off for a moment, waving her hand vaguely in reference to all the possibilities she failed to mention. "Eventually physical contact becomes an actual option and you can touch that person, you know? Brush a hand against theirs, give them a hug... If the relationship progresses the touches start becoming more intimate and eventually even taste can start playing a part in it all." Claire took a deep breath, let it out slowly and then threw a sheepish smile Kara's way while shrugging.

They fell into silence once more. Claire went back to her cinammon roll while Kara processed to the tidal wave of thoughts that had been thrown at her. Much like before she couldn't quite keep herself from questioning the validity of it all. Once again she couldn't help but think that just because something wasn't technically wrong didn't make it automatically right.

"You don't look convinced." Kara jumped slightly as Claire's voice cut through her train of thought. "You," Claire waved her fork in Kara's direction, a knowing look quirking her eyebrows up. "do not look convinced at all." There was no bite to her words. It wasn't a challenge, just a simple statement of fact which gave Kara enough confidence to push back a little.

"I don't know it's just... Doesn't it feel a little too much like one size fits all?" She asked, frowning slightly as she struggled to find a better way of conveying her thoughts before coming up empty.

"Actually, I think it's pretty flexible." Claire sounded perfectly confident in her statement, as if she had all the information and proof she needed to back up her claim. Kara wasn't sure whether it was because she actually could do so or if she just didn't think she'd need to, but her curiosity won out once more.

"Yeah? How?"

Once again Claire perked up, as if both surprised and delighted by Kara's continued interest.

"Well... The professor gave us an oversimplification of the whole thing, you know? Just a quick rundown in the last few minutes of class. But I've been giving it some thought and... I dunno, I just think that over time- days, weeks, months... You can really start seeing what I'm talking about. It's like..." Claire's brow furrowed for a moment as she sorted through her thoughts before speaking up again. Kara refrained from interrupting her train of thought, all too familar with the need for a moment of silence to organize them before launching into speech. Eventually Claire nodded to herself, smiling at having managed to shift through everything enough to get back on track. "It's- Take the first one. Sight-" 

"See?" Kara cut her off, finally feeling a little more confidant in their discussion. A little more willing to push back against her friend's explanations now that Claire seemed to have rallied her thoughts. "I already have a problem with that. You can hear someone coming way before you actually see them." Claire tilted her head looking far too smug for someone who'd been refuted before they even really started their point.

"No. No you can't." She said with complete certainty.

"Uh... Yeah. You can." And Kara was confident in this. After all, she could hear conversations happening on the other side of campus without even putting that much effort into it if she wanted to. Not that she would ever be able to use that as an argument. But even without mentioning her own heightened senses, any human could hear someone speaking even if they had their back turned to the speaker.

"Nope, you can't." Claire insisted, shaking her head. "Well, I mean, you can, technically, sure..." She cut herself off again, laughed at the stubborn jut of Kara's jaw and waved a placating hand between them for a moment. "Let me explain?" She asked. Kara almost wished she could refuse out of sheer stubbornness, but even if she weren't curious about Claire's reasoning (which she definitely was) how could she deny her the chance? She nodded slowly.

Claire leaned back in her chair for a moment, eyeing Kara thoughtfully while taking another slow sip from her coffee.

"Close your eyes."

Kara blinked.

"What?"

"Close your eyes." Claire urged.

Kara looked at Claire skeptically for a long moment but when all Claire did in return was meet her gaze head on she huffed before deciding to humor her. She could practically see Claire's pleased smile. It seemed like Claire was perfectly content to simply keep them both sitting in silence for who knew how long. Just when Kara was going to ask her just what exactly she was supposed to be doing Claire spoke up again.

"Do you hear that?"

Of course she did. Kara heard so much more than Claire would ever be able to imagine. She had no difficulty picking up the sound of coffee beans being ground in the shop, the pigeons outside pecking at a dropped pastry on the sidewalk, the cat that was ever so slowly stalking towards them. She could hear a young mother humming a lullaby for her cooing baby a couple of buildings over and could even pick up the muffled, frustrated groans coming from some of the students studying in the library on the next block. Of course she couldn't mention any of that, and anyway, it was safe to assume that Claire was referring to the footsteps sounding against the old wooden floors of the coffee shop.

"Yeah, I hear it."

"Good."

They were silent once more. This time Kara knew better than to break it. Instead she concentrated on the footsteps Claire had pointed out. They moved from the doorway to register. A male voice spoke up, raspy from what she assumed was exhaustion, and ordered an espresso to go. From the sound of it he paid in cash and since he was the only customer waiting for service it was a matter of moments before the barista handed him his drink and his footsteps sounded once more. She heard the door open and close and decided to stop listening after that, assuming that by then he was probably far enough for no human to be able to hear him over the bustling noises of the street anymore.

"So tell me, Kara," She could hear the smirk in Claire's words and couldn't keep herself from cracking an eye open just enough to glare at her. "Who was that?"

Kara hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure what the right answer to the question was. Had the man who had just been inside the coffee shop been someone they knew? Nothing about him had sounded familiar and yet Claire wouldn't be asking if that weren't the case, right?

"It was... a man." That much was a safe bet at least.

Claire nodded slowly. "And?"

Kara floundered for another moment before admitting defeat. "I don't know. Who was it?"

"I dunno." Claire shrugged, chuckling quietly. "I've never seen that guy before in my life."

"Well then why ask me?" She asked throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"To prove a point." Claire laughed. "See? You heard that guy but what is he to you? Just a couple of footsteps and a disembodied voice. Hardly enough to be considered a character, am I right?"

Kara clenched her jaw but jerked her head into a nod.

"Kara..." Claire shook her head in amusement and tried her best to hide her smile. Tried. "Why do you think that horror movies let you hear the danger way before you see it? For most people hearing something before seeing it is surprising at best and threatening at worst."

Kara huffed loudly but let her jaw relax before she nodded again.

"These are just guidelines, Kara." Claire assured."It doesn't mean you can never have things happen a different way. I mean, how many of your sappy romantic comedies have the whole meet-cute happen when the two characters bump into each other on the street or something?" She asked, nudging Kara lightly with her elbow. That did manage to get a grudging smile out of Kara. "I mean, touch is the fourth sense to come into play usually, and yet there you have it. Boom! Just start with touch why don't you?"

"Okay, you've made your point." Kara shook her head but she laughed despite herself. "Using my favorite movies against me is a low blow though."

"Do you think I wear my Slytherin scarf just for the aesthetic?" Claire laughed, tossing the end of the green and silver scarf over her shoulder dramatically. Kara rolled her eyes and shoved at her shoulder playfully before remembering that few people were used to her shoves. Her eyes widened for a second but to Claire's credit she barely seemed phased by it. Kara sagged in relief at that, glad to see that she had managed to keep her strength in check and then cleared her throat.

"So," She began, propping her elbow on the table and taking a hold of the straw she'd used to stir the sugar in her drink, fidgeting with it slightly. "What were you going to say about sight?"

Claire smiled again.

**Author's Note:**

> Knowing me, updates for this fic will be sporadic and unexpected so sorry in advance. I'm always lurking on tumblr @hatterlifestyle though, so feel free to hit me up there.


End file.
